Not so long ago Perth was still being affectionately described as a big country town, but within the space of a few years it seems to have become a big congested city. Just ask anyone who has to commute across the narrows during peak hour.

But if you think the congestion is already severe, brace yourself for what's in store. The number of cars is set to double as the city's population soars. So is this something we can prepare for or is bumper to bumper now just a fact of life? Jake Sturmer hit the road to find out.

JAKE STURMER, REPORTER: If you think peak hour traffic is bad now, just imagine what it would be like with twice as many cars on the road.

PROF IAN KER, TRANSPORT PLANNER: In Sydney for example it would be three or four hours in the morning and three or four hours in the afternoon.

CRAIG WOOLDRIDGE, MAIN ROADS: It's a fairly sizeable part of your life so it does have a fairly big impact on the amount of time you have available for recreation outside of work or even work time.

JAKE STURMER: The Bureau of Statisticsics is predicting the number of cars on WA roads will jump from 900,000 today to 2 million by 2050.

PROF IAN KER: I think that's untenable. If you double the number of cars that we have in Perth we are not going to double the amount of roads that we have.

JAKE STURMER: It's not about planning for the future here at the traffic operations centre. It's about coping with the daily dramas.

WORKER, MAIN ROADS TRAFFIC OPERATIONS: Just wondering why that's not moving. Hello, there we go.

JAKE STURMER: The staff keep a 24 seven watch over the hundreds of thousands of cars, bikes and trucks that use Perth's roads every day.

SUZANNE, MAIN ROADS TRAFFIC OPERATIONS: Going to ring the police now. Suzanne ringing from Main Roads traffic operations. Just to advise we have a 3 car collision on South Street at Benningfield.

JAKE STURMER: Main Roads says its goal is to provide consistency for drivers.

If people have a reliable journey time they can plan their journeys much better.

JAKE STURMER: It is Craig Wooldridge's job to cope with the peak of today and prepare for the driving deluge of tomorrow.

CRAIG WOOLDRIDGE: We will be seeing a greater use of technology out on the roads so for the freeway for example we are looking at having signals on the on ramp so we drip feed the traffic on to the freeway. So less disruption of traffic on the freeway, much safer and more efficient.

PROF IAN KER: We can do the obvious things in transport like improve the public transport system and that's beyond investing in rail. That's making sure that everyone has access to public transport.

JAKE STURMER: Experts agree it will take more than just funding public transport to keep a lid on the ever expanding peak hour. People are moving further and further away from the CBD but their jobs are staying in the city, so Perth bound trains are almost as full as the freeways.

CRAIG WOOLDRIDGE: There will be the need to be employment in places like Joondalup and Midland and surrounding areas.

PROF IAN KER: That's an area where we've spectacularly failed. And I think the classic case of that is that if you look at the northern suburbs railway to Joondalup, it's carrying a lot more people than was anticipated at this time.

But the reason is that the employment hasn't gone out there.

JAKE STURMER: David Engwicht has a different approach to the congestion.

DAVID ENGWICHT, PLACEMAKER: Perth like most places is giving too much precedence to traffic.

JAKE STURMER: He calls himself a place maker and works as a traffic consultant for local governments like the city of Melville.

DAVID ENGWICHT: This is a great example of how a community is turning its back on a road that's treated just as a corridor right through the middle of their community, ripping the heart out of their community.

JAKE STURMER: He says people have retreated from the street and allowed traffic to take over.

DAVID ENGWICHT: Instead of reading a book at the back of your house, bring a chair out and sit in the front yard or on the footpath and read the book there, it will bring the speed of the traffic down.

Turning their back on it is actually encouraging the traffic to go faster and for there to be more and more of a traffic channel here.

JAKE STURMER: But with all the planning and all the proposed solutions, is it all just talk?

CRAIG WOOLDRIDGE: Things are being done, so we have seen a number of improvements made to road network in recent years. That will be ongoing. So there'll still be a need for widening roads out, extending freeways to new areas as well along the railway tracks and bus routes.

JAKE STURMER: But it remains to be seen how much all this will cost and whether Governments in the future will have the political will to pay for it. In last year's budget the government allocated more than $7 billion over the next three year for transport with the next budget due shortly those figures could be changed and after that it's anyone's guess. Whatever happens Main Roads is confident it can handle any demand.

CRAIG WOOLDRIDGE: We can cope but we will need to be very well planned with Main Roads, public transport authority and urban planners so we get a good result out there.

JAKE STURMER: But what the hundreds of thousands of drivers who head to the city for work really want to know is will they ever get an ininterrupted journey?